This summer’s hottest trend? Revising the value of your cable channels.
On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery realized its cable networks were worth $9 billion less than it originally thought. On Thursday, Paramount Global reduced the value of its own cable channels by nearly $6 billion. WBD’s internal audit was triggered by its loss of NBA rights; Paramount changed its numbers based on what Skydance is paying to (essentially) acquire it.
With the giant accounting adjustment, Paramount posted earnings of 54 cents per share, well above the 12 cents Wall Street anticipated. But Paramount whiffed on media analysts’ consensus expectation of $7.21 billion in revenue, reporting $6.813 billion.
Back on the plus side, Paramount Global turned its first profit — $26 million — ever from streaming. Paramount+ still lost money, which means Pluto TV and/or BET+ had its back. Paramount+ also lost subscribers, 2.8 million of them, after exiting a hard bundle in South Korea as expected. Paramount+ now has 68 million subscribers.
Management still forecasts Paramount+ will first turn a profit in the U.S. in 2025.
From January through March of this year, Paramount+ had added 3.7 million subscribers, but streaming lost $286 million.
One content highlight in the June quarter included Jeremy Renner’s return to acting with the third season of Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown.” Paramount+ also attracted viewers with old Showtime series “Your Honor” and “Dexter,” though most of those old shows’ success came by way of Netflix.
As previously reported, Paramount+ is soon to raise prices again. Paramount’s new “Office of the CEO” has been searching for a partner for the streamer; Max may be in the running, but its own parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has more pressing problems at the moment.
In April, longtime President and CEO Bob Bakish was replaced by a trio of in-house executives: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios President and CEO Chris McCarthy, and CBS President and CEO George Cheeks. Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is selling her stake to Skydance founder David Ellison who, in turn, will make Paramount Global buy Skydance. It’s been a long road to get here.
More to come…
